Maria Toso

Maria Toso is an author, yoga and meditation teacher, and the creator of the Heal What Hurts Process. For more than thirty years, she has explored how movement, meditation and loving presence can help people find a steadier connection with themselves. Her teaching brings together somatic awareness, yoga, meditation and prayer.

Originally from Copenhagen, Denmark, Maria makes her home in Minnesota and keeps a deep connection to her Danish roots. Her background includes many years of Iyengar Yoga and Tibetan Buddhist practice, and prayer is an important part of her life that informs the way she teaches.

She has taught yoga teacher training at Saint Paul College and Minneapolis College, and mindfulness and relaxation through Saint Paul College's Gateway to College program. Her teaching has also taken her into substance use treatment settings, workshops and retreats, experiences that have shaped her commitment to making practice accessible to people with different backgrounds and life experiences.

The Heal What Hurts Process combines somatic awareness, compassionate inquiry and prayer. It helps people notice emotional triggers, recognize familiar reactions, and stay connected to themselves when something hurts. Maria describes those reactions as the "Three Outs": lashing out, numbing out or checking out. She shares the approach in her book, Heal What Hurts: How to Heal Emotional Triggers, published by Llewellyn, and through guided meditations, yoga practices, small group coaching, private coaching and retreats.

Maria is also the founder of Powerfully Peaceful, which brings yoga and mindfulness into schools and communities. It grows from her belief that learning to listen inward and respond with greater awareness belongs in shared spaces, too.